Thierry Henry would probably rank as one of the top ten players in the 2000s, his sublime dribbling synonymous with Arsenal’s flowing style. However, last night, he proved that as it is with footballers with all the prodigious talent, could do anything to win a game, just ask a certain Diego.

Twitter
Thierry Henry is a hot trend on Twitter. As I search this on Twitter, there are probably about 100 tweets a minute on Henry. In Spanish, Korean, French, and every other language.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a democratic doyenne of world enlightenment and knowledge. An Open Source tool brought forth by the Internet that gives everyone the ability to update encyclopedia entries immediately. However, it is clear the effect of disgruntled Irish fans, with several pages at Wikipedia feeling the “Henry effect” – with a battle raging over the definition of cheating in sport. One paragraph began:

“The single biggest most obvious example of cheating in the history of soccer took place in Stade De France on November 18th 2009 during the Ireland versus France playoff for qualification to the 2010 World Cup”

Little wonder my University’s policy is that Wikipedia can never be used as a legitimate source for references.

Obviously a few Irish fans were too disgruntled and tampered with the Wiki page for Henry

Betting
Irish firm Boylesports have opened markets on all things Hand Henry.

Henry has many commercial interests, and sponsors Gillette have already publicly backed the star. Boylesports, however, are offering 18/1 that there is an Irish boycott of the shaving giants, or 16/1 that he is dropped by his other high-profile sponsor, Renault.

Here is the video of the handball in its full glory, in infinite repeat.

Of course, the conspiracy theorists would point to FIFA changing the seeding of the play-offs after it looked like the likes of Germany, France & Portugal wouldn’t be at the World Cup. Looking at highlights of the match, and the various comments pouring around, I wouldn’t be surprised if the referee had some guidance and advice.

Monsieur Henry has the final word though:

“The ball hit my hand, I will be honest. It was a handball, you can clearly see it. [Sébastien] Squillaci went to jump with two Irish players, I was behind him and the next thing I know the ball hit my hand.

“It was a handball, but I’m not the ref. I told [the referee] but he said to me the same: ‘You are not the ref.’”

Undoubtedly, judging by his goal celebration together with William Gallas, Henry never ever wanted to be classed as a sporting footballer along the likes of Robbie Fowler, Paolo Di Canio, and Costin Lazar.

In all curiousity, if Singapore got to their 1st ever World Cup final courtesy of a handball against arch-rivals Malaysia, what would the reaction be?